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Lagos is not a “No Man’s Land”-Osoba and Oba Akiolu declares

A former Ogun State Governor, Chief Olusegun
Osoba; Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu and others on Wednesday faulted claims
by non-Yoruba ethnic groups that Lagos “is no man’s land.”

Also, former
Federal Commissioner of Works, Alhaji Femi Okunnu, lamented that the creation
of states after the administration of General Yakubu Gowon had created more
problems than solved diverse challenges confronting Nigeria.

The leaders
expressed their views at a public lecture organised to mark the 50th
anniversary of Lagos State at Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, noting
that it was not only embarrassing, but also confrontational to claim that Lagos
“is no man’s land.”

The lecture,
with the titled: ‘Lagos: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,’ was attended by the
state’s military administrators, Brig.-Gen. Mobolaji Johnson, Admiral Ndubuisi
Kanu, Air Comm. Ebitu Ukiwe and the state’s first civilian governor, Alhaji
Lateef Jakande.

Other
speakers, who faulted the claim that Lagos is no man’s land, included first
Town Clark of Lagos City Council, Sen. Habib Fasinro; former Justice of the
Supreme Court, Justice Olusola Oguntade, and Dean, College of Humanities and
Social Sciences, Al-Hikmah University, Prof. Hakeem Danmole.

The speakers
said the claim was not only misleading, but equally confrontational, noting
that it abused the history of indigenous people of Lagos as the Aworis, Egbas,
Binis, Ijeshas, Nupes, Brazilian returnees.

On this
ground, specifically, Osoba said: “We need to understand that there were early
settlers in Lagos. So, whenever some people say that Lagos is no man’s land, I
laugh because I know that there were true land owners in Lagos.”

Akiolu
provided some historical facts to buttress Osoba’s position, noting that Lagos
should not be referred “to as no man’s land because our forefathers were the
founding fathers of the state.”

The monarch
explained that his forefathers had been living in the territory of Lagos
several years, even before the Europeans and others came to Lagos.

Danmole, who
provided insight into the history of Lagos, said Lagos Island to the indigenous
population is called Eko, whose origin was well known traditional, but
controversial accounts.

Nevertheless,
according to him, it is important to note that one version of the name relates
to the advent of Aworis, while the other is connected to Benin adventures in
Lagos.

Despite this
controversy, Danmole said, what is fairly certain is that the Awori settlement
in Lagos was earlier than that of the Benin, which eventually subjugated the
emergent settlement.

He said: “Written records insist that Olofin,
the leader of the Awori at Iddo divided Lagos among his children. Although many
versions exit with regards to the number of children of Olofin, these children
established various settlements within the Island and beyond.”

Unlike the
Awori, Danmole said the accounts of Benin’s relations with Lagos were
fundamental to the evolution and eventual administration of the emergent
settlement.

Also at the
public lecture, Okunnu lamented that after 12 states created by the Gowon
administration; successive military administration damaged the country built by
their founding fathers with creation of additional states.

He said: “I
wished that we have held on to the 12 states structure initially created by the
Gowon administration. If the country held on to the structure, the ongoing
demand for restructuring by some Nigerians would not have been necessary.”

Okunnu
argued that the creation of additional states further brought ethnicity and
religious differences that has become a huge problem for the country.

Previously,
according to him, relationship in the country was cordial that everyone lives
together without emphasising on religion or ethnicity. We celebrate together to
the extent that we don’t clear distinction between us.

He,
therefore, said the differences were heightened by the activities of Afenifere
Renewal Group, Arewa Consultative Forum and Ohanaeze Ndigbo, which hijacked
them for their political interest rather than the reasons they were
established.

When the groups had not been hijacked by
politicians, Okunnu explained that Nigerians engage in politics without adding
religious or ethnic coloration.

He lamented
that politicians now use the groups “to gain power and other things that the
group should not have engaged in. The groups must be confined to the cultural
areas which they were created for and desist from delving into politics.”

In his
address, Ambode said Lagos had since effectively transited from an
administrative entity “to become the melting point of cultures and the
socio-political and economic jurisdiction of global significance, rated today,
as the fifth largest economy in Africa.

“The gathering
of today goes beyond the periphery. This is because today offers us all, an
opportunity to have introspection into the past, engage in an objective
appraisal of the present and, a realistic prognosis of the future of another 50
years.

“This is why
the assemblage of today, replete with our knowledgeable royal fathers, elder
statesmen, jurists of distinction and Lagos indigenes of repute who are in
their own class repositories of the great history of our dear state.”

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reports.

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